Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

There’s a big, important limit on Trump’s power to seize control of DC’s police

On Monday, President Donald Trump released an executive order invoking a rarely used federal law that allows him to temporarily seize control over Washington, DC’s police force. Later the same day, DC’s Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser seemed to concede that there’s nothing she can do about it. “What I would point you to is the […]

Do Israelis care that Gazans are starving?

How do Israelis feel about the increasingly horrifying crimes their government is committing in Gaza? This is one of the key questions going forward. Israel is a (teetering) democracy with elections scheduled for next year. The public’s attitudes could — by putting pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition — play a major role in determining if, […]

Stop romanticizing the 1990s. The data shows today is better.

Let me introduce you to four of the most dangerous words in politics: “the good old days.” Humans have a demonstrated tendency to remember the past as better than it actually was. It’s called “nostalgia bias,” and it can lead to us unfairly comparing the conditions of the present to some better imagined past. Memory, […]

The surprising origins of the “wellness” boom

“Wellness” is a word influencers use as a hashtag on videos of them pouring collagen into smoothies and as the theme of a celebrity chef’s new cookbook. It’s even an obsession of the US health secretary. But what does it mean to be well? That’s the question we answer this week on Explain It to […]

The uniquely American panic over adultery

Americans have long considered cheating one of the worst things you can do to another person that doesn’t end in jail time.  We witnessed the ire that messing around incites second and third hand in July, when a kiss cam caught the now-infamous Coldplay CEO (not his legal name) and his fellow Coldplay-loving coworker canoodling […]